Materials 2030 Manifesto
Over the past 6 months, Umicore joined forces with other private and public organizations for a common vision and purpose: to build a European advanced materials ecosystem that will enable the transition towards a green and digital economy. With the support of the European Commission, the different parties, including Umicore, have recently co-developed and co-signed the “Materials 2030 Manifesto” presented to EU Commissioner for Research & Innovation, Mrs Mariya Gabriel, on February 7th.
Advanced materials are key enabling technologies. They deliver the solutions to reach climate neutrality, circularity and sustainability. The Manifesto not only outlines the research and innovation (R&I) areas where they will make a difference to achieve the European green deal (reaching climate neutrality by 2050), but highlights the importance on how these materials should be developed.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, Europe realized its dependency on other regions for its strategic value chains and now wants to reinforce its autonomy and preserve its technology leadership. Therefore, the paradigm and future of European R&I in advanced materials needs transformation. Enhanced circularity and responsible practices should be part of each and every development focusing on sustainable and safe advanced materials. Additionally, the incorporation of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotization, high throughput analytics and modelling will be a key pillar to increase speed of development of advanced materials.
The Manifesto is the first step in increasing awareness, leading to the expansion of funding capacities for advanced materials, aligning funding agendas and priorities from the EU, different Member States, and industry to move towards the same direction, and building a strong network of capacities & competences for advanced materials development in the EU.
More concretely, in the coming months the Manifesto should engage with relevant groups of stakeholders such as EMIRI (the energy materials industrial research initiative) to define a solid strategic R&I roadmap with key priorities. The set-up of a transparent and balanced governance body will also be critical, representing key sectors between public and private bodies and covering the different EU countries. Umicore will support in every step of the process as we have the know-how in advanced materials and a broad network of key players in the value chain to shape the Materials 2030 Manifesto initiative.